Chemical composition of ultracentrifugal fractions in different patterns of human atheroslcerosis.

The chemical composition of ultracentrifugal fractions of VLDL (d less than 1006), LDL (d 1006-1063) and HDL (d less than 1063) has been studied in males affected by atherosclerosis of different vascular beds. Thirty-seven subjects affected by post-infarction cardiopathy (M.I.) showed significantly higher values of total-C, VLDL-C and LDL-C when compared to 52 controls. Twenty-three patients affected by non-occlusive ischaemic heart disease (I.H.D.) showed higher values than controls of total-C, VLCL-C, LDL-C, total TG, VLDL-TG, and GDL-TG. Twenty-three patients with atherosclerosis of the inferior limbs (P.A.) were characterized by increased levels of total-TG, VLDL-TG, VLDL-C, HDL-C. A group of patients who had suffered a stroke from cerebro-vascular disease (C.V.D.) did not show any significant difference from controls. In the M.I. group, 56% of the patients had a high level of C-VLDL. Patients with I.H.D. were characterized mostly by an increase in C-LDL, Patients with P.A. showed the highest values of total -TG, VLDL-TG and LDL-TG. Some of the observed differences are probably due to different metabolic backgrounds. Some other differences may be due to variations in dietary habits after heart infarction. Patients with levels of plasma cholesterol and triglyceride beyond the 90th percentile of the normal group showed many abnormalities in the chemical composition of their lipoproteins. It is noteworthy that increased amounts of cholesterol may collect in lipoprotein classes different from LDL while increased amounts of triglyceride may collect in classes different from VLDL.